The only reason I’m still reading these is the meltdown of the moment can be entertaining.
P.S. You might want to edit your comment or risk a vacation.
1 Like
I’m pretty sure we had these same threads appear when Curse first appeared and then when they began making use of their Curse client.
1 Like
I think I misread some stuff. The thing that from what I can see could be an issue is if the website sure is free but is monitizing off you just being there or using advertisements that are required to play in order to gain monetization is a huge grey area.
It doesn’t technically break the rules, sure, but if an advertisement has to play for you to download your stuff or has to appear on the launcher wouldn’t that technically fall into the “otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on” bit?
Overwolf or wowup, it may lead to some issues down the line. I understand people wanting to be compensated w/e for their time and all that into it. I always thought addons were donation driven until all this stuff came around. I’m still learning new stuff about all this too in this process so correct me if I’m wrong on stuff.
That takes a bit too far IMHO. There was never a good centralized way of directly supporting addon authors - you could subscribe to curse I guess, but nobody knows how much of that goes to addon authors, and having to go through and find every author’s Patreon/PayPal/Ko-fi/etc makes for friction that most won’t bother with.
It would be interesting if someone started an addon repository/service that is paid only or throttles update frequency and addon count for free users (e.g. free users can only have 5 addons installed and can only update once a month), with the greater bulk of subscription fees going directly to authors. The client could be open source so people can see exactly what the code is doing and can trust it.
Same when Twitch took over. I liked and still miss the Curse Client but I HATED the Twitch app.
4 Likes
Wouldn’t that break the rule I linked from the UI forum earlier though?
1 Like
I honestly like the Overwolf app far more than the old twitch one. It really got annoying when they started having popular twitch streams on the home page of the app…
1 Like
I don’t think so. The “no paid” rule was designed to stop commercial sale of addons, because at the time there was a “WoW Autopilot” sort of addon that encrypted its code and required users to purchase a license key to use it.
Even if it did, the throttled updates strategy for free users would work around it.
2 Likes
No, it’s not even lose to falling into any such category. You still aren’t paying for anything, unless you’re clicking on the ads and purchasing whatever is being advertised.
It wasn’t a problem for Curse or even Wowinterface before. Ads play a role in keeping websites free for vistors to use. Maintaining a website with a large database isn’t free nor as cheap as people seem to think.
1 Like
That’s one of the main reasons I hated it too. I would have preferred an app just for addons with no streaming integration.
1 Like
I did to, though once I found out how to turn off all the crap Twitch put in it and used it solely for addons for WoW. Everything was easy enough to ignore.
1 Like
On that (sorry I didn’t clarify) I ment the launchers having the advertisements. Websites always have advertisements but did the original curse downloader have adds? It’s been so long since I used that I don’t remember and I don’t think twitch had adds (it may have I don’t remember) then wowup just recently got adds. From my understanding, the overwolf thing has had advertisements and some of the adds were infectious (although I think curse back in the day some addons could infect too always a risk).
Right and as long as they are on the side or w/e that’s ok. Like intrusive. I would just have an issue that is along the lines of “watch this 30 second advertisement to continue your download.” I don’t mind em being on the sides and if it got to that point, it would be crazy annoying.
That’s kind of the point. Now that there is one, people are screaming about it and don’t want to support it.
If the real issue would be that Overwolf is not trustworthy, then they would support WoWUp/Wago instead, but the overwhelming majority of people have already said they have no intention to opt-in into the ad part of the app.
Then its really that people do not want to support developers yet still demand addon updates no?
I don’t know, it seems to me this is constantly a major issue with gamers in general. They will drop hundred of thousands of dollars at a gaming company blindly, but all the support systems that make the game actually enjoyable, and are done and maintained by the community are suddenly “trying to rip gamers off” and don’t deserve a single cent.
How many wow players don’t pay the measly $9 a YEAR to WoWhead to keep it running? Arguably THE most important website companion to the game?
I wouldn’t mind advertisements in the downloader thingies that they have if I knew it wouldn’t infect my machine or do anything else weird.
Basically the downloader has no risk of harming my machine due to background processes or advertisements displayed.
Btw how do you enable the adds in wow up? I updated and the adds at the bottom left went “poof” and idk how to turn em on.
1 Like
At first? No, but it wasn’t long after the curse client was first released they began offering curse premium. That’s when the client gained ads. Minion was the same way. There was also WoWMatrix. Which also added ads to their client.
1 Like
Options > Addons > click click on the Wago one. Might require app restart?
It’s super subtle… the ad is in the bottom left corner under the Patreon link.
1 Like
I would say no because I’m not pulling out my wallet. And I doubt Blizz will ever do anything or even could do something because what could they do? The only fair course of action Blizz could take is to ban every addon on Curse since by stretching the definition of “addons must be free” all addons on that website are in violation.
It’s both! You can donate to addon developers through their paypal or patreon or whatever they use and “popular” addons also get some amount of pennies for how many users download addons but I think only after reaching a certain threshold.
1 Like
That’s why you ensure you have good antivirus/malware software and keep it udated.
The old pre-twitch Curse app had ads, but there were plenty of people who didn’t use the app either because they had few enough addons to just update them manually or used third party managers, which Curse made no attempt to curb. Addons also needed updating far less frequently back then because the addons dealing with data didn’t have the data changing nearly as often (no raider.io addon mainly).
I personally never used the pre-twitch Curse app.
I mean none of those options are particularly appealing. Honestly I’m surprised that Wowup/Wago isn’t even bothering trying offering a subscription, because I think a lot of players would subscribe to a service that they trust. Justified or not a lot of people distrust Overwolf and seeing Wowup only give the option of ads doesn’t inspire confidence that it won’t just turn into Overwolf II given enough time. Presentation and execution count for a lot.
I don’t subscribe to Wowhead out of principle, because they use some of the worst ad providers on the internet as leverage to try to force users into a subscription. If they were more responsible with their ads I’d subscribe in a heartbeat, because money is not an issue for me and I subscribe to the things I like.
If you believe Overwolf
Mod authors get 70% of the app’s revenue, so by using CurseForge you help reward your favorite creators. Use the free version with ads, or subscribe to level up your support and remove ads